In the cave of El Mirón in northern Spain, intrigue surrounds a woman who was laid to rest there 19,000 years ago. Her bones, coated in an earthy shade of red derived from the natural pigment ochre, led archaeologists to give her the name the “Red Lady of El Mirón;” new research, however, has taken a closer look not at her red-hued bones, but at the soil within the cave.
In a study recently published in Nature Communications, researchers analyzed sedimentary ancient DNA, or sedaDNA, refining their understanding of the Red Lady of El Mirón’s heritage. In addition, they detected genetic evidence showing the consistent presence of several carnivore species that often visited the cave when humans weren’t present.
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A Colorful Burial
Although archaeologists started exploring El Mirón in 1996, remnants of the Red Lady weren’t found until 2010. Her remains, including an array of mostly intact bones, were concealed in a narrow space behind a limestone block etched with engravings. Researchers speculate that these engravings were potentially meant to mark the Red Lady’s burial site — a “V” shape carved into the block, for example, may have signified a woman’s burial in particular.
The idea that the Red Lady was intentionally buried is lent more credence by her ochre-coated bones. Those who buried her covered her body in ochre obtained from a location outside of the cave as a kind of ritual offering. At some point, a carnivore — possibly a wolf — dug up parts of the skeleton, including a tibia that it gnawed on, leaving teeth marks. Researchers hypothesize that the skeleton was later coated in ochre again and reburied, meaning the involvement of ochre in this ancient burial process must have held some significance.
The Red Lady’s Ancestry
The researchers were able to recover three human DNA samples of Solutrean lineage from sedimentary ancient DNA; ancient populations of the Solutrean tool-making culture lived around Southwestern France and Spain during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the most recent ice age in history that occurred roughly between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago.
These people had moved south during a period of major climate upheaval, preceding the Red Lady and contributing to her DNA. The El Mirón cave, then, was likely a refugium for ancient humans during and immediately after the LGM.
In the future, researchers will aim to recover nuclear DNA from the El Mirón sediments, which could provide an even more detailed look at the genetic makeup of the Red Lady.
Carnivores in the Cave
The new study shows that El Mirón was home to several animals throughout the Paleolithic Era. Most notably, carnivores — like the one that chewed on the Red Lady’s tibia — frequented the cave during the Paleolithic. Physical evidence of animal remains is sparse in the cave, so researchers turned to sedimentary ancient DNA from dirt to supplement their studies.
The researchers recovered DNA belonging to carnivorous species like spotted hyena, Iberian lynx, and dhole, a species of wild dog now only found in eastern and southeastern Asia. Carnivores such as these ones likely came to the cave to scavenge leftovers from humans. DNA from multiple herbivores was found as well, including reindeer, rhinoceros, and wooly mammoth. The results demonstrate the potential of sedimentary ancient DNA as a valuable method that can fill in gaps in the archaeological record when physical remains like bones are limited.
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Jack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.
